The present invention is directed to a computer, in particular, a computer housed in a typical personal computer housing in which the smallest outer dimension of the housing is the height.
As the computing power of microprocessors has increased, there has been a proliferation of personal computers in the work place. Whereas computing was formerly done by mainframe computers located in a separate computer room, now more and more individual offices are being equipped with their own personal computer. The electronics of a computer generate heat. This is particularly true for the power supply and the disk drives. For proper operation to be maintained, the electronics of a computer must be kept below a threshold temperature at which the electrical performance changes or breaks down. Therefore, a personal computer generally includes a fan for air cooling the components housed within the computer.
Unfortunately, the fan, the disk drives and the power supply produce noise during operation. This noise unnecessarily pollutes the office environment. Noise has been associated with increased levels of stress and other physiological effects. It is an object of the present invention to provide a personal computer that can operate silently.
Another aspect of personal computers is that they are generally cumbersome to service. The components that may need replacing are often not readily accessible. Moreover, computers are generally serviced by handing over the computer itself to the technician. Computers generally hold a memory that may contain personal and sensitive information of the user. It would be highly desirable to enable servicing to proceed without providing the service technician with available access to such personal information. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a computer with an ease of serviceability and a modular design which permits servicing of the computer without handing over the computer's hard disk to the technician.